As we’ve
mentioned earlier, the Sony Ericsson K850 moves the Cyber-shot line to
the next level thanks to both hardware and software changes. The
hardware innovations are described above, while the software ones will
follow. As a whole, the interface is similar to the ones before, but is
upgraded, tweaked in some of its parts. In this aspect it reminds of
the W910, which also runs the same generation of software.

Main Menu

This is the first Cyber-shot phone with support for Flash Themes.
In the past, only Walkmans did, but with newer models we see that Sony
Ericsson has integrated this feature also into the “S” (S500) and “T”
(T650) series, and now into the “K”. The flash themes can change the
icons in the main menu and as we’ve seen in previous models, can even
use other layout for it, for example a horizontal list with large
visualization. They definitely look much better than the ordinary ones.

Phonebook:

Phonebook

As
far as saving numbers to the phonebook is concerned, there's almost no
difference with the previous models; you can save up to 1000 contacts,
while each of them can store several numbers (up to 7000 numbers in
total), e-mails and web addresses, as well as a personal picture and
ring tone, or video-tone for indication when you have an incoming call.
You can add contacts to groups but you cannot set a common ring tone or
a caller ID to a given group. As a whole, this function is planned to
be used only when you want to send a message to more than one contact
for example. Finding a contact is done by directly entering letters
from the keypad, but unfortunately only the first word of the name
considered during the search. However, an option we really liked was to
sort the names both by first and last name. Still, if you’ve sorted
them by last name, you will not be able to search by First name, which
now appears as second word.

When
you start dialing a number directly from the standby screen, you will
find one of the tweaks coming with the new firmware. The phone will
search the phonebook and the calling history for matching results (both
about numbers and names) just as it is with any WM6 or BlackBerry
device. The convenient thing is that it searches the names as if you
type them with predictive input system. For instance, if you want to
dial “Neo”, you have to dial 636 (6-MNO, 3-DEF, 6-MNO) and almost
immediately the phone will show you all matching names. Unfortunately,
like in the contacts menu, the phone won’t search through the second
word of a name.

This is just ridiculous and people spending so
much money on a phone don’t only require camera with large resolution,
but also decent phone functionality. Any phone nowadays should be able
to find the names by the second word.

Organizer:

Just
as the Contacts, the Organizer menu has its own icon in the main menu.
Its options include calendar, tasks, notes, alarms, calculator, timer,
stopwatch, code memo, applications links, and synchronization option.

Calendar

The
Calendar can be viewed for a month, week or a day; the latter option
shows the events, set for the particular day, as well as the
possibility to add new options. When you want to add appointments, you
select the starting time, duration and the reminder’s time. You can add
details about the venue of the event, as well as a description. You
have the option of setting it as an All day event (all birth dates from
the contacts list are added as such) and to include recurrence options
(daily, weekly, monthly, yearly).

You can also save simple Tasks
(reminder for Task or Phone Call) or write a plain note. The menu also
houses a Calculator with basic functionality, a Countdown timer and a
Stopwatch capable of storing up to nine results. We think that the Code
Memo option is useless and we will prefer to have a “safe” where we can
save text information, LOCKED (not coded) by a password.

Task

Calculator

Stopwatch

Code Memo

Additionally in this menu is the file manager, which was found in
the main menu of phones with the earlier software version. It sorts the
content by type and offers option to filter either the phone or the
card memory, or to view both at the same time.

Instead the
manager, the main menu has icon for the five alarms. Each of them can
be set on its own and has fields for time, recurrence and signal type.

The
voice commands are activated by holding the Volume Down button, and if
you don’t have any voice-tags recorded, the phone will prompt you do to
it. We think that this system is useless as you must read what it
writes on the screen, but shortly after that hold the phone to your
ear, as it has sound notifications but doesn’t utilize the
speakerphone. This makes them absolutely inconvenient to use and we
even had a problem with only one contact saved. There's no room for
making a comparison with the system used in Symbian S60 phones or any
other that have speaker-independent voice commands for making calls and
opening applications. To sum it up - the one here simply does not work.

The phone has about 40MB of internal memory that can be expanded through Memory Stick Micro (M2) cards, or microSD ones.

Messaging

Messaging:

Besides
the standard and multimedia messages, the messaging menu also houses
the e-mail client, which makes it easier for you to send and receive large files that are not suitable
for MMS, like full-sized pictures for example. Entering text is aided
by T9 which increases the text input speed. The preloaded templates
also are intended to help you save time typing in often used phrases
and sentences. What we found weird is that this menu houses a RSS
Reader, which is convenient to quickly view the content of a given web
site without loading it - we checked phoneArena's news in an instant.

The
new thing is that you can manage the messages – assign categories to
them and save them either to the phone’s memory or the one of the
memory card. It would be appreciated mainly by the texting fans.

Connectivity:

Finally
a Sony Ericsson phone capable of global roaming arrived on the market,
which means that it can be used in GSM networks all around the world.
Thanks to support of tri-band UMTS/HSDPA, 3G is also usable both in
Europe and in America, and the K850 will work with no problem in
AT&T’s 3G network. There even is some rumors that the carrier will
offer it, but this is still not officially announced.

Locally
the Cyber-shot phone connects through Bluetooth 2.0 wirelessly or via
the USB cable that is in the box. It comes with the standard for all
Sony Ericsson phones PC Suite. You can by-pass it and connect the phone
as a mass storage device, in order to transfer files to and from its
memory.

Internet:

As other new models of the company, the K850 is equipped with full HTML internet browser
that loads pages as you’d expect to see them, like on a computer. The
complicated phonearena.com homepage isn’t problem for the modern
browser.

7 Comments

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1.Siva (unregistered)

Thnks for the review ..
but here i want to say some thing ..
1.) This phone has got a new platform ie a200 which is very advanced ..
2.)the firmware currently is not that stable and camera wise also its not the perfect.. and Jan 08 is when new firwmware is going to be released...
3.)UI is awesome and especially it comes with MegaBAss which is only found in W series..
So get the phone and just be patient for the new firmware release in jan..
and please do conduct a cam test then .. K850 will win every phone outthere in 5MP segment...
happy new year

2.aem (unregistered)

3.nick (unregistered)

i was just wondering where i would find the firmware for this phone
and also, if it's not too inconvenient, can someone explain to me the process of getting music/pictures/themes onto the phone?
and how to get the pictures/videos uploaded to my computer?

4. (unregistered)

5.Mr J (unregistered)

I have had the K850 since early december and I am now on to my third handset.
The phone seems to have seriosuly dodgy firmware which when it decides to crash, it turns the phone in to a nice paper weight. Unless you have the right kit to be able to complete a full firmware flash, you have to send it back to your service provider for repair.
I have also suffered numerous software crashes on the phone, it turns it's self off ever now and then and when it does come back on, it does not ask for any security codes. Not a big issue I agree, but what the hell is it doing if not a full restart? Surely it should be as if the phone has just been turned on....
There was a newer version firmware released maybe 2 months ago which I applied to the phone in the hope that it would cure the problems, it didn't and I have only just received the handset back from my service provider for the second time, minus the battery....so I still don't know if the handset is working properly.
BTW, I am in the UK and on the 3 network......stay clear!!

6.dave diddy (unregistered)

Please Please Please, Save yourself of all the trouble by not buying one of these. I have been using a K850i for 12 months now and my 4th replacement handset has just broken, again!
Nice features of the phone but generally runs slowly and crashes a lot and from my experience needs replacing with a new/replacement handset every 2-3months. All the problems were still occuring with this phone even after several firmware updates from sony ericcson's website.

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